{"id":119,"date":"2015-05-19T13:57:50","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T13:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/homeless-in-high-school\/?p=119"},"modified":"2015-06-01T15:29:42","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T15:29:42","slug":"this-shelter-helps-homeless-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/homeless-in-high-school\/2015\/05\/19\/this-shelter-helps-homeless-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"In Prosperous Collin County, This Shelter Helps Homeless Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 110,000 children in Texas are considered homeless — many live with relatives or couch-surf at a friend’s place. Some even live on the street. Others live in homeless shelters. Learn what it’s like to be a student without a home in one of Texas’ wealthiest counties.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"Photo\/Lara

Sylvia Torres eats with friends in the cafeteria at McKinney North High School. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/figure><\/h3>\n

Across Texas, almost every high school has homeless students. They\u2019re often invisible to classmates. Invisible to teachers. They\u2019re even invisible to each other.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They\u2019re teens like Sylvia Torres.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sylvia, 16, is a junior at McKinney North High School. It\u2019s her fourth high school in three years.<\/p>\n

The moment she walked into class, she was behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came here from South Dakota, they were ahead of us and I haven\u2019t learned it,\u201d she said. \u201cI started failing. It started frustrating me. And it got to the point where I couldn\u2019t eat no more. I couldn\u2019t sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sylvia\u2019s family was struggling, too.<\/p>\n

\"Lynne

Lynne Sipiora is the executive director of The Samaritan Inn in McKinney. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

In the two years since her freshman year\u00a0in Rapid City, her financially-strapped family bounced around. They lived in Richardson, McKinney, and back to South Dakota. That\u2019s when they got word that a spot had opened up in The Samaritan Inn, a homeless shelter in McKinney in Collin County. It used to be a minimum security jail.<\/p>\n

The Samaritan Inn, founded in 1984, calls itself the largest homeless program in Collin County. Smaller shelters in the county take in homeless kids, but no one focuses on adults and families the way Samaritan does.<\/p>\n

“There’s almost 1 million people in Collin County now and there’s still just one homeless shelter with 160 beds. That’s insanity,\u201d says Lynne Sipiora, The Samaritan Inn\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n

She uses the word \u201cinsanity\u201d because Collin County, just north of Dallas, is among the wealthiest counties in Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that is an obstacle I have to get around everywhere I go,\u201d Sipiora said. \u201cBut I have gotten around it because I have the numbers to back up the need: Always full.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, The Samaritan Inn turned away 3,600 qualified people.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A

A common area at The Samaritan Inn in McKinney, a homeless shelter in Collin County. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/figure><\/h3>\n

Inside The Samaritan Inn<\/h3>\n

Today, the Torres family has a small room in the family wing of The Samaritan Inn — bunk beds, lockers and a tiny bathroom.<\/p>\n

\"KERA_homeless3\"

Inside one of the rooms at The Samaritan Inn in McKinney. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

Down another spoke of a hall are rooms for women. Another wing is for men. The central desk is the hub of the shelter\u2019s design. There\u2019s a cramped computer lab, small kitchen and dining room.<\/p>\n

A federal law, the 1987 McKinney-Vento Act,\u00a0requires all public schools to educate homeless kids. It has nothing to do with the North Texas town — it\u2019s named after two late Congress members.<\/p>\n

Barbara James, who runs the Texas Homeless Education Office in Austin, explains who qualifies: \u201cChildren that are living in shelters, in motels or hotels, kids that are sleeping on the streets. Kids that are sleeping in places considered unfit for habitation, and the largest category of all, children and youth that are doubled up with family or relatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kids who are doubled up with family account for up to 70 percent of the state\u2019s homeless kids.<\/p>\n

When Sylvia lived with her uncle, she fit that category.<\/p>\n

Interactive: Where North Texas Homeless Students Attend School
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Click on each marking on the map to see how many homeless students were enrolled in North Texas school districts during the 2013-2014 school year.<\/em><\/p>\n